In recent months, the national governing bodies (NGBs) for several U.S. Olympic and Paralympic sports have taken steps to change their gender eligibility policies following the executive order that President Donald Trump signed at the beginning of the year.
The order, which is based on the premise of guaranteeing fair competition in women’s sports, has already led to rule changes in volleyball and fencing, and several more Olympic sports are expected to follow in the coming months.
In July, the U.S. The Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) made headlines when it announced a change to its Athlete Safety Policy. The USOPC updated its Athlete Safety Policy, adding a paragraph mentioning that it will “collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC (International Olympic Committee), IPC (International Paralympic Committee), NGBs (National Governing Bodies), to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201.”
In March, USA Volleyball updated its transgender and intersex policy to be in line with the order. In a statement, the organization cited a desire to “bring people together and to create a sense of belonging.”
Here is the statement from USA Volleyball:
At USA Volleyball, we believe in the power of sport to bring people together and to create a sense of belonging. We are proud to support a diverse volleyball community that includes many LGBTQ+ athletes, coaches, and fans.
In accordance with a federal executive order and requirements from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, USA Volleyball is implementing an updated Gender Competition Policy, effective immediately. This policy requires athletes to compete in the gender that matches the sex assigned at birth, as listed on their birth certificate.
We understand this update may affect members of our community in deeply personal ways. While we are following a federal mandate, our commitment to inclusion, safety, and dignity for every athlete remains unwavering. Discrimination or harassment or exclusion of any kind has no place in our sport.
USA Fencing was not far behind in updating its policy to comply with Executive Order 14201.
The response to the change was immediate. Carl Charles with Lambda Legal, a senior attorney who has worked on a variety of cases involving the civil rights protection of transgender people, had the following to say regarding the compliance with the new policy:
“It is disappointing to see yet another entity, in this case the governing body of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams, engage in pre-emptive compliance with the discriminatory orders issuing forth ad infinitum from the Trump administration, with no serious consideration of the science or the impact on the targeted communities.”
Fatima Goss Graves, the President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, was even more direct, making the following statement in a press release:
“By giving into the political demands, the USOPC is sacrificing the needs and safety of its own athletes. The vagueness of the Committee’s policy will leave athletes unprotected from humiliating sex-testing practices.”
USA Swimming has not yet changed its policy to comply with President Trump’s order at the time of publication.
As Olympic hopefuls look ahead to the Los Angeles Games in 2028, the long-term outcomes of these rule changes for U.S. athletes and U.S. sports remain to be seen.
Related: https://x.com/i/trending/1963354345099190636
I think a big piece that’s missing from this entire discussion is an understanding of what people mean when they say policies like this aren’t made for woman’s safety. From what I’ve seen, most of the people that are regulars on this website would agree with these policies for the sake of perceived fairness in sports, and don’t actually hold malcontent towards the trans community at all.
The problem is that for the same people, this starts and ends as a sports topic, and it just isn’t anymore.
It feels to me like you could draw a direct line from those now infamous 2022 NCAA’s to now showing a growth in villianifcation of trans people. I’ve watched it… Read more »
Very random statement but let’s look at a lil comparison between 2 Olympic champions in the 50 free. An ex couple, Pernille Blume and Flo Manaudou. Put them side by side and just look at the difference between male and female. END OF STORY, I don’t want to hear “but the science is inconclusive👆🤓”
Prior to Lia Thomas/the recent bruhaha, it was not a gender free-for-all. Florent Manaudou could not just show up to a meet, declare he felt like a woman that day, and enter a women’s race.
Lia had to undergo 12 months of hormone replacement therapy before competing on the women’s team at Penn, and she was at 30 months by her first meet. As of 2015, the IOC required serum testosterone levels below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to competition. The 2015 edict eliminated the gender-affirming surgery and legal recognition policies that were put in place in 2003.
Athletes could also not change their gender identity for at least four years under the 2015 framework.
USA Swimming… Read more »
Lia was undergoing hormone replacement while a member of the men’s team for 3 years? I don’t remember reading that.
You should read more. The universe doesn’t adjust its facts based on what you do or don’t know.
You realize I posed a question?
Thanks Braden for the review, it’s been years since I read about Lia’s actual swimming.
Then you’re reading the wrong sources. What you’ll find is that, throughout this conversation, lots and lots of lies are told to prove points. Nancy Hogshead keeps repeating that every swimmer hits a huge taper for NCAAs every year as part of making her point, and she definitely knows that’s not true.
Lia swam on the men’s team in the 2018-2019 season, almost made NCAAs, began HRT in May 2019, swam one more season for the men’s team (and you’ll notice a pretty significant dropoff in her times). Ivies all skipped the COVID year, then she swam her first meet in November 2021 after 30 months of HRT, so 2.5 year.
I’ve mixed up my story a bit – NCAA… Read more »
Braden is formulating a well articulated and fact-based response. Unfortunately, millions of people either refuse to believe it or refuse to accept facts that paint a bleak picture of their president. We all get it, men and women should be separated in athletics. This point has been made ad nauseum. In all honesty how many people have truly been affected by this? I am not saying no one is affected, but I am curious as to how many have truly and directly been affected. Is this really what we need to devote our time and energy toward? We have a president who claims to want peace, but threatens Canada, Panama, Greenland and Venezuela. He has lied about ending the war… Read more »
Well written. These people who speak in such absolutes never have a fully-formed opinion on anything because they can’t fathom any stance other than their own bearing weight.
Fine to think that biological men shouldn’t compete in women’s sports, pathetic to be such an airhead about it.
How do other industries/venues beyond sports treat trans people?
Life Insurance, where women live longer generally than men?
Retirement/pension actuaries, same longevity considerations.
Tests for fitness in occupations like firefighter or other occupations requiring candidates pass a fitness test.
It could be instructive to learn how policies addressing trans persons outside of sports/swimming might inform policy making by NCAA, USA Swimming etc.
Life insurance companies much be facing a conundrum about this.
I didn’t think pensions are allowed to make assumptions about longevity based on sex?
Firefighters all pass the same test I believe.
Interesting question but probably one SwimSwam doesn’t have data for?
The most depressing comment thread. Trans people are the victims here NOT the enemy
Stop complaining and COMPLY!
How is it even a controversy, except in US? Your politics always makes me confused.
There is certainly no settled science yet as to whether trans women have a non-negligible advantage over cis women in sports. If your position is “we should err on the side of banning them until the science is settled” then I understand that. I don’t necessarily agree, but that is a reasonable and understandable position to have.
But as usual, the comments devolve into people pretending to care about women’s sports and using this as an excuse to engage in blatant transphobia and spout alt right talking points. Evidence has consistently and repeatedly shown that anti-trans policy harms cis women. I’m not even going to touch the other irrelevant politics and jingoism through out the comments.
You can see it with your eyes.
In what sense can you see it with your eyes? I have literally never seen a trans woman win a swimming medal or break a record or even make a final in international competition. Because it’s never happened.
If it was this obvious loophole that could be easily abused, don’t you think maybe one single trans woman in all of history might have tried it at least once?
While I don’t think your thoughts are totally off base, I would argue that the average SwimSwam reader probably actually cares more about women’s sports than the average population as a whole.
I agree with this – I generally tell people I saw the beginning of this as “one of three people in the country that cared about women’s college swimming before this” – but they’re still being used.
They’re not subtle about it:
… Read more »This is 100% on point (wow are we agreeing on something!?). If you look at what Gaines posts on social media the majority isn’t even about sport. It’s mostly demonising trans people but also just the general LGBT community as well
Lol I did almost say something on one of your prior comments about a Dreaded Aussie being one of the few people that “get it.”
Yeah she’s truly such a villain. Hopefully she overshoots so much that it brings people back around on “the general humanity of trans people.”
100% agree with you. The average SS commenter definitely cares about women’s sports more than the average person.
However, I think these articles tend to get brigaded by people who aren’t regular commenters, and even putting that aside, a lot of the regular commenters add transphobic elements to their comments that aren’t necessary to make their point.
As I said, I completely understand people who disagree with allowing trans women to play women’s sports until we have better science. But the vast majority of comments aren’t saying that, they’re saying trans people are mentally ill or morally corrupt.
So they are just expessing their opinion?
Especially in 2022-23, we used to get so many randos commenting on just the Thomas articles.
It used to take a little bit, too – generally it’d be a day or two after the post went up, I assume someone shared it amongst other zealots and all of a sudden it would go from the people that do actually care about women’s college swimming trying to talk mostly in good faith about the issue to people just blowing everything up.
That does seem like it happens a little bit less now, if only because there never really is that “nuanced discussion” that I think a lot of regular commenters/readers wanted to have a few years ago. It’s just… Read more »
I have to respectfully disagree, whilst there is little academic evidence to support or negate performance advantages of transgender athletes there is an abundance of relative science. As a professor who has studied physiology, biomechanics, endocrinology, swimming kinesiology and published sports journals I can say definitely there is an advantage for CIS male/transgender females competing in women’s sports. The only current mitigation is the reduction of testosterone to under 6 nmol/l. This is only one aspect controlled, there is no mitigation for heart size and cardiac output, reparatory volume, musculotendinous function and size, wingspan and foot size – all of which impact swimming and athletic performance and all which do not change (substantially or at all) when undergoing androgenic therapy.… Read more »
If you think you have a fair position based on science, then use science to prove it. If you’ve published multiple journal articles then tell me your name and I’ll read them.
This post reeks of someone pretending to be an authority in their field but not providing any actual evidence (because they know it doesn’t exist)
Have you put your real name forward? JC seemed to state something balanced and intelligent, rather than taking any of it in it’s straight to attack.
I don’t need to put my name forward. I’m not claiming to be an authority with published articles on this subject. I’m just using objective facts.
If you are claiming to be an authority who has published numerous articles and using that as a central part of your argument, then your name is required.
My mistake, you seem to be an authority on everything….
Those in glass houses…
I put my real name on my posts and I can tell you that this is a vast oversimplification.
Just looking at a snapshot of a person doesn’t really work, here. Because how many trans athletes have we ever seen compete at a high level? Win an Olympic medal? Wouldn’t you expect, given idk you must know how numbers work, that it would have happened by now, if all we needed to do was measure wingspan and some biomarkers? Or is there something sociological going on here that might make it difficult for a trans athlete to reach the upper echelons of sport?
I’ve also got basically the exact qualifications you’ve made up for yourself, lol.
Cool. Show me the data and get published.
I’m still trying to figure out who where and what are being “excluded”!?!? Everyone, EVERYONE, is welcome to compete under their assigned sex at birth. Sounds like inclusion to me.
“Everyone, everywhere, is welcome to sit in the part of the bus assigned to their race. Sounds like inclusion to me”